


Special Circumstances

by ActualMercy



Series: XiaoDan Kanemaru [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Other, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23714482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualMercy/pseuds/ActualMercy
Summary: “My DayCare can be rebuilt. You cannot be.”
Series: XiaoDan Kanemaru [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1707973
Kudos: 2





	Special Circumstances

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ze_z_zi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ze_z_zi/gifts).



> Literally how our girls met: or, at least, how they remember meeting.

“Welcome to the DayCare, which Pokemon would you like to leave with us tod-”

“Can I hide under your counter?”

The questions was met with pale green eyes blinking almost pointedly at the girl before her- she looked to be just barely younger than herself, so why was sh-   


“Please!”

“... Okay..?”

_ People in Galar certainly are… Strange. _ The thought crossed XiaoDan’s mind as she lifted the counter’s panel separating her from the client, and without another word spoken, she watched the darker skinned girl crouch down to hide underneath her work area. Before she could even think of a question to ask, the entry door swung open to reveal a group of men. They were all unfamiliar faces, but that was common for her here: she was a DayCare, after all.

“Welcome to the DayCare, how may we assist you tod-”

“Where’d she go?”

_ These people… _

The young woman felt a slight throb at her temple as they approached. On average, they stood at no taller than above her shoulder- the tallest perhaps hitting where her ear would be, if she stood beside them. Considering her stature, that was quite tall. A longer glance at them let her see that they had no pokemon, no pokeballs or anything to note that they had some in their inventory: what would they be doing here?

Something told her it had to do with the girl hiding underneath the counter.

“This is a DayCare,” XiaoDan responded, face unchanged as she exited from behind the counter and stood before them. “I receive multiple people daily who entrust me to their Pokemon: I ask that you do the same. If you do not have any Pokemon to give me, please leave”

There was an audible click of a tongue from one of them, and the front of the group -she presumed to be their Vespiquen, of sorts- approached her closely with a grin playing on his lips. It was unsettling, to say the least. “Y’know, we were looking for a certain challenger- y’must’ve heard of her, I’m sure?”

“I am afraid not: I receive multiple people daily wh-”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re ‘bouta receive  _ us _ now, Sweetheart.”

XiaoDan didn’t have the time to register what he said before she felt the cold wood of her counter slam harshly against the back of her head, and for a split second she swore that she could hear the girl hiding underneath wince for her. Her arms were splayed and pinned against it by two different men as the one she was speaking to flipped up her apron, hands roaming along her hips until they found the waistband of her leggings.

“I’ve never taken a bitch as tall as you, this oughta be good.”

“Y’think she’s really a bitch? She’s got some muscle on her, might’ve got a tranny on our hands.”

“A hole’s a hol-”

The sentence could barely finish before the man before her was kicked backwards, the speed at which he flew back making him crash against the front door with a  **_crack_ ** that neither of his companions could tell was the wood or his skull. Either way, it was enough to set them off as they tossed XiaoDan onto her front and bent her over the counter in an attempt to subdue her, and for just a moment, her head fell over the counter’s edge to meet an upside-down gaze with that of the girl’s terrified one.

“It will be okay,” she responded- the monotone in her voice matching the deadpan of her expression as she dug her knees into the counter’s front panel and used it as leverage to swing herself back up with the flex of her lower back.

By the time her feet met the ground, it was all over: for them, at least. One of her hands pushed one of its handlers away for momentary freedom, curling into a fist that met straight with the nose of the man who kept his grip on her with a rather satisfying  **_crunch_ ** . He stumbled backwards all too easily, and that let the taller woman turn her attention to the man she’d pushed away, now charging towards her with his own punches ready to throw.

Experienced hands grabbed onto his wrist, her towering height over him proving no problem as the young woman from Johto lowered her stance and turned sharply to throw him forward. She had been meaning to let his back slam against the floor, but it looks like she got overzealous with expending her energy: as her hands let go, she heard the sharp shatter of glass, and looked up to find one of her front windows broken. Now it was her turn to click her tongue, that throb at her temple showing itself again as if this weren’t of her own doing.  _ How am I going to explain this to Kabu? _

The answer was yet to be found when she felt the searing impact of a well-formed fist making contact with the back of her head. But, that was far from enough to even make her stance fall as she looked back to the last man standing: the one she kicked away.

“Y-You’re fucked as soon as I tell the cops ‘bout this-”

“And what are they going to do?” The inquiry was met with a sharp glare at the man. “For what reason will they prosecute a DayCare owner for defending her establishment from three men who do not have Pokemon and performed assault for no reason? You speculated and accused me of harboring a girl, yet had no patience to state why you were searching for her in the first place. You attacked me upon inquiry, and I responded appropriately.”

For once, she was met with silence. Perhaps it was the fact her gaze went beyond the shorter man and up towards a camera she had mounted on the ceiling: a pricey investment, but one she was glad to have done, at least.

Even with the sunlight beginning to wane, she could make out the color of his face draining, and she knew her point was made.

“N-Now don’t- Don’t be hasty, Doll,” his demeanor changed to a rather humorous one, despite the welts that were showing up on his face from when he made contact against the door. “L-Law’s messy- Y’don’t wanna have t’close down this place and stand in court while they review the footage, yeah? C’mon, I’ll strike up a sweet deal with y-”

“Fear not,” Now it was her turn to play the interruption game. There was clear terror in his eyes as she approached him, the differences in their height much more apparent now as jade hues stared down emptily at the man, as if he were a simple Caterpie rather than a person.

No, such a comparison was insulting to Caterpie.

His fear was made very clear by the cry he let out as she grabbed his collar, her face remaining as flat as ever, yet those eyes of hers burning fire beneath jade. Her fingers were itching as she pulled her fist back, pinning the man against the door of her DayCare that was already beginning to warp against the frame from its initial impact.

“I do not plan on going through such frivolous matters.”

* * *

“Are you okay?”

The question was met with warm brown meeting glassy green.

“Am I- Are  _ you _ okay?!”

“I am fine. Are you okay?”

The longer they spoke, the more Ze came to hear the thickness of her accent against practiced words: this was a woman who truly didn’t know who she was, wasn’t it?

“Y… Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” At least, her current state was in comparison to the new usual.

“Good. Dinner is going to be ready in half an hour.”

There was no invitation, no inquiry: just the statement before that upside-down face lifted up and Ze followed along to leave her hiding place and stare at the woman as she picked up the remnants of a door with a single hand and threw it outside. A curtain had already been hung up, as well as a folding divider that looked similar to one Ze’s mother had that came from Hoenn.

“How much-”

“We start early tomorrow: set an alarm for sunrise.”

Again, there was no tone to her voice: only the motions of someone who seemed to have experienced her own battles and cleaned up her own messes.

“... Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it.”

“But- Your door- Your DayCar-”

“Think nothing of it, Miss.”

There was meaning to those words as the taller girl looked back to meet eyes once more with her visitor and walked back towards her. One hand extended out into the air: a formality.

“XiaoDan.”

“W-”

“My name is XiaoDan.”

“... Ze.” Her hand extended out to take hold of XiaoDan’s: a strange handshake regarding the circumstances, to say the least. “You’re… Not going to ask why they were looking for me?”

“It does not matter,” Her response was so casual, though the fact her face looked exactly the same as it did when Ze first ran into the DayCare seemed to let her know that this might just be how she was as a person. “They were looking for you without regards to my establishment, so they were not welcome. They refused to leave, therefore I showed them the exit.”

No questions followed that: instead, there seemed to be the silent agreement that things had happened as they did, and there was nothing more to it. The night passed by quickly, after that: they headed to the back, where her home was attached to the DayCare, and dinner happened with the discussion and agreement that Ze would be staying for a week to help XiaoDan keep things together while she worked with the insurance agent for fixing her door. Before they retired for the night, though, there was one final conversation before Xiao headed off to her room after ensuring that her new temporary employee was equipped for the night.

“... Why did you help me?”

“I already t-”

“No,  _ why  _ did you do that to them, to your business? I’m just a gym challenger, you didn’t have to do all this.”

There was silence that followed- was she thinking? Was she being ignored? It was difficult for Ze to make out in the dark apart from what the moonlight let her see.

“Because-” A pause: was that a crack in her voice, Ze heard? “My DayCare can be rebuilt. You cannot be.”

And now it was Ze’s turn to be silent.

“Good night, Ze.”

Without another word, she disappeared into the darkness of her hallway. But, perhaps that was for the best: they had a long day ahead of them, with the DayCare.

**Author's Note:**

> In this house we stan women protecting other women.


End file.
